17. So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.
18. Then I fell down like the first time in the presence of the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights; I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and provoking Him to anger.
19. I was afraid of the fierce anger the Lord had directed against you, because He was about to destroy you. But again the Lord listened to me on that occasion.
20. The Lord was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.
21. I took the sinful calf you had made, burned it up, and crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust. Then I threw it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
22. “You continued to provoke the Lord at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.
23. When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, He said, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you’; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not believe or obey Him.
24. You have been rebelling against the Lord ever since I have known you.
25. “I fell down in the presence of the Lord 40 days and 40 nights because the Lord had threatened to destroy you.
26. I prayed to the Lord:Lord God, do not annihilate Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.
27. Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.
28. Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, ‘Because the Lord wasn’t able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’
29. But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.